anthrax

Scientists seek answers on what activates deadly anthrax spores

...ection that is back in the news. "A key aspect of anthrax spore biology concerns the germination process thr...ortance of such a germination control mechanism in anthrax is clear, as spore germination and outgrowth are fundamental to proliferation." Claiborne, co-direc...

Study Models Impact Of Anthrax Vaccine

...pidly distributing antibiotics to peopleexposed to anthrax spores during a bioterrorist attack, could byitself, prevent about 70 percent of anthrax infections from occurring,according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School ofPublic ...

Antibodies from plants protect against anthrax

...ants, human antibodies that could be used to treat anthrax exposure. They report their findings today at the ...d tested for their ability to protect mice against anthrax infection. The plant-produced antibodies were just as effective as the antibodies produced by human ...

Programmable cells: Engineer turns bacteria into living computers

... "The bull's-eye could tell you: This is where the anthrax is," said Weiss. The researchers published their results in the April 28 issue of Nature. In addition to Weiss and Basu, authors of the paper are postdoctoral researcher Yoram Gerchman at Princeton and professor of chemical engineering Frances Arnol...

Critical step traced in anthrax infection

...ave revealed details of a key step in the entry of anthrax toxin into human cells. The work, which grew out of an ongoing effort to produce a better anthrax therapeutic, shows that the protective antigen component of the bacterial toxin plays an active role...

Anthrax test, developed by army and CDC, receives FDA approval

...ure plate that has been inoculated with suspicious anthrax colony growth, you can see clear zones where the B...bacterial cells grow unaffected." Well before the anthrax attacks of 2001, scientists at USAMRIID and the CDC recognized the need for an FDA accepted method f...

'Mad cow' proteins successfully detected in blood

...ure plate that has been inoculated with suspicious anthrax colony growth, you can see clear zones where the B...bacterial cells grow unaffected." Well before the anthrax attacks of 2001, scientists at USAMRIID and the CDC recognized the need for an FDA accepted method f...

Anthrax inhibitors identified by Burnham team

...ellecchia, Ph.D., has identified inhibitors of the anthrax toxin, termed lethal factor ("LF") that could be d...rrorism. Pulmonary anthrax, in which spores of the anthrax bacteria are inhaled, is typically fatal unless diagnosis is made at an early stage of infection, wh...

Tagging pathogens with synthetic DNA 'barcodes'

...amples containing various combinations of E. coli, anthrax and tularemia bacteria and ebola and SARS viruses, and have found the color codes could clearly distinguish several different pathogens simultaneously. The research is described in a paper, "DNA fluorescence nanobarcodes for multiplexed pathogen det...

US Army plans to bulk-buy anthrax

...al weapons in 1969, but small quantities of lethal anthrax were still being produced at Dugway as recently as...at they could be used to determine how effectively anthrax is dispersed when released from bombs or crop-spraying aircraft. "I can definitely see them testing ...

New NIAID grants strengthen national biodefense and emerging infectious diseases research network

...iodefense Research Agenda. "Since before the 2001 anthrax attacks, the United States has been at risk for a bioterror attack. With these grants, a key element of our strategic plan to counter bioterrorism and emerging infectious diseases is now complete," says Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of NIAID. "Our...

Tiny avalanche photodiodes target bioterrorism agents

After the anthrax attacks in the United States in 2001 the threat of a larger and more deadly bioterrorism attack -- perhaps from smallpox, plague or tularemia -- became very real. But the ability to detect such biological agents and rapidly contain an attack is still...

New antibody shows promise as cure for anthrax

A new anthrax antibody engineered by scientists at The Universit... at Austin protects and defends against inhalation anthrax without the use of antibiotics and other more expensive antibodies. The high-affinity antibody, an ...

Anthrax stops body from fighting back, study shows

...researchers have uncovered how the inhaled form of anthrax disarms bacteria-fighting white blood cells before...lls most victims within days. The lethal toxin in anthrax paralyzes neutrophils, the white blood cells that act as the body's first defense against infection,...

War on terror meets war on cancer

...t the oxygen isotope ratios in bacteria similar to anthrax reflected the ratios of the water in which they were cultured, providing clues to where the bacteria were grown. The method also has been used to track the source of explosives favored by terrorists, and has been proposed as a way to use hair sample...

Effective, safe anthrax vaccine can be grown in tobacco plants

Enough anthrax vaccine to inoculate everyone in the United States...neering of tobacco plants survived lethal doses of anthrax administered later by National Institutes of Health researchers. The results of the NIH-funded study...

Poison + water = hydrogen. New microbial genome shows how

...bacterium that causes anthrax. Sporulation allows anthrax to be used as a bioweopon because the spores are r...those of other spore-making species, including the anthrax pathogen, Eisen and colleagues identified what may be the minimal biochemical machinery necessary fo...

UCSD study finds anthrax toxins also harmful to fruit flies

Deadly and damaging toxins that allow anthrax to cause disease and death in mammals have similar...iochemical activities and physiological effects of anthrax toxins. Learning how these toxins attack developing and adult tissues is important because it can h...

Pair of studies offer new clues to combat antibiotic resistance

...pathway, she says. Gram-positive bacteria include anthrax and other strains that cause upper respiratory infections and sepsis. In comparison to gram-negative bacteria, they are generally considered easier to control with antibiotics. "Antibiotic resistance is a huge problem that is only going to get worse...

Typhoid fever led to the fall of Athens

...eral diseases, including bubonic plague, smallpox, anthrax and measles have been implicated in the emergence and spread of this epidemic. A mass burial pit unearthed in the Kerameikos ancient cemetery of Athens and dated back to the time of the historical outbreak, provided the required skeletal material f...

Driver of anthrax toxicity could lead to late-stage therapy

...4 Cell reports the discovery of a gene that drives anthrax bacteria's toxic effects. The gene could offer a p...rapies might have the potential to protect against anthrax during the late stages of the disease, after antibiotics have lost their therapeutic value, they add...

Scientists design potent anthrax toxin inhibitor

...lth (NIH), have engineered a powerful inhibitor of anthrax toxin that worked well in small-scale animal tests. "This novel approach to the design of anthrax antitoxin is an important advance, not only for the value it may have in anthrax treatment, but also...

Anthrax spores may survive water treatment

...on methods in the unlikely event of the release of anthrax in the water supply. Researchers report their fin...purpose of this study was to determine the fate of anthrax spores in a drinking water system that uses chlorine as a disinfectant. Though researchers have som...

Anthrax inhibitor counteracts toxin, may lead to new therapeutics

...lecules that successfully counteracts and inhibits anthrax toxin in animal and laboratory experiments. The novel approach used to neutralize anthrax toxin could be applied in designing potent therapeutics for a variety of pathogens and toxins, accor...

Potential vaccine developed for deadly leishmaniasis disease

...eclinical trials. Other candidate vaccines against anthrax and tuberculosis are at an earlier stage of development. One major drawback with carbohydrate vaccines is the difficulty in getting them to produce a strong immune response. Vaccine manufacturers achieve this by adding a booster substance ?an adjuva...

Newly discovered protein kills anthrax bacteria by exploding their cell walls

... a newly discovered protein could be used to fight anthrax infections and even decontaminate areas in which anthrax spores have been released. "Anthrax is the most efficient biowarfare agent. Its spores are stable a...

Combating anthrax: Results of study published this month as researchers look for a better vaccine

...could be an alternative to the presently available anthrax vaccine. This new type of anthrax vaccine produced the immune response doctors were looking for, according to peer-reviewed research p...

Encoded metallic nanowires reveal bioweapons

...selected harmless model substances to stand in for anthrax spores, smallpox virus, and protein toxins such as...simultaneous test for all of these is desired, the anthrax antibody would be attached to stripe pattern 1, the smallpox antibodies to stripe pattern 2, and the...

Basic work on E. coli identifies two new keys to regulation of bacterial gene expression

...tion, such as bacteria that cause cholera, produce anthrax toxin or lead to ulcers and stomach cancer." Scientists use model organisms because they are relatively easy to work with and because there is a vast amount of previous knowledge about them. They can then test whether their findings in model organis...

Defense peptide found in primates may block some human HIV transmissions

...aniell has developed a similar approach to growing anthrax vaccine in tobacco plants. An inexpensive way to produce the drug with only a small amount of tobacco would help to make it accessible in areas such as Southeast Asia, Africa and the Caribbean where the disease spreads most quickly. "If we could ...

Vaccine combined with short-term postexposure antibiotics protects monkeys from inhalational anthrax

...rtant implications for public health management of anthrax bioterrorism events. Anthrax is caused by the sp...y, has a high fatality rate. In addition, because anthrax spores can remain in the body for extended periods, antibiotic treatment is typically recommended fo...

New finding points way to foiling anthrax's tricks

...a, Berkeley, chemists have discovered a trick that anthrax bacteria use to make an end run around the body's ...job has been an enigma. The new study shows why anthrax bacteria require two siderophores working by two different mechanisms. Siderocalin, the human immune...

Technology exists to keep E. coli out of food

... bacteria and viruses. It even kills avian flu and anthrax spores," Feirtag said. ...

Cheaper, better disease treatments expected from faster approach to developing antibodies

...t is in late-stage, clinical trials to treat human anthrax infections. Iverson is a co-author and a collabora... chemical engineering, engineered antibodies to an anthrax toxin called PA. He and Thomas Van Blarcom, a graduate student in chemical engineering, used a metho...

Anthrax attack posed greater potential threat than thought

A new study shows that more people were at risk of anthrax infection in the Oct. 2001 attack on U.S. Sen. Tom...ple who were nearby when the letter containing the anthrax spores was opened; 20 who were outside the building and presumed to be unexposed; and, for compariso...

Anthrax paralyzes immune cells with lethal toxin, UF research shows

... researchers have revealed how the inhaled form of anthrax paralyzes the body's defenses and prevents immune ...he EMBO Journal, may lead to quicker diagnoses for anthrax victims. The disease causes flu-like symptoms that can take weeks to develop, according to the Ce...